• Although the hugely popular show ended this week after eight seasons, the debate on how it represented women will continue.
• The data suggest that across all eight seasons, male speech amounts to about 75% of all speaking time in the series.
Image: HBO/Sky Atlantic
Female characters in Game of Thrones speak about three times less than male characters in the show, according to new data.
Although the hugely popular show ended this week after eight seasons, the debate on how it represented women will continue.
The data suggest that across all eight seasons, male speech amounts to about 75% of all speaking time in the series.
It was compiled by research group Ceretai for BBC 100 Women.
The share of female speaking time varied between seasons, starting at about a quarter in season one and rising slightly to a third by season seven.
However, the final season, which saw many female characters at the forefront of the plot, was among the worst for female speaking time.
The data was compiled by Ceretai, a Swedish start-up that uses machine learning to analyse diversity in popular culture.
Their algorithm has learned to identify the difference between male and female voices in video and provides the speaking time lengths in seconds and percentages per gender.
Like most automatic systems, it doesn't make the right decision every time. The accuracy of this algorithm is about 85%, so figures could be slightly higher or lower than reported - but the data suggests that speaking times for men and women in the programme are far from being equal.
Lisa Hamberg, co-founder of Ceretai, told the BBC that by analysing Game of Thrones, they wanted to make viewers aware of the wider problem of how women are portrayed in the media.
"We are not doing this to make people stop watching, but to make them aware of the fact that it's an unfair representation of the world", she says.
Researchers were expecting to see about 30% of the speaking time to be the voices of female characters. This is the average given to women on screen, according toresearch by the USC Annenberg on inequality in 900 popular films.
The highest proportion of female speech in Game of Thrones is found in the fifth episode of season 4, First of His Name.
Storylines with leading female characters such as Cersei Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen make female speech almost equal to male speech, at nearly half of the total.
One of the worst episodes for equality of speaking time across all seasons is the seventh of season one, You Win or You Die, with female characters saying just one sixth of the dialogue.
The episode included a scene that led to the coining of the term "sexposition" by critic Myles McNutt, referring to the use of sex scenes in the series as a way to explain plot and character motivations.
Image: HBO/SKY ATLANTIC
Diversity seemed to improve across the middle series, and by season seven the show saw one of the highest percentages of female speech - at about one third.
But the final season of Game of Thrones has the lowest average for female speech - just one in five times the overall speaking time, according to the algorithm used for the analysis. Hamberg said: "Our hope was to see a positive trend, but this [data] tells us the opposite".
The fourth episode, The Last of the Starks, gives less than 20% of speaking time to women.
And the season finale, which aired on Sunday night in the US and on Monday in the UK, saw a gender split of about 80% for male characters and only 20% for their female counterparts - one of the lowest across the series.
Image: HBO/SKY ATLANTIC
Seen but not heard
These findings may surprise some fans, as the final season has been lauded for showcasing strong female characters. From Daenerys to Arya Stark, we have seen their battles and vendettas take centre stage.
Dr Stephanie Genz, a media studies lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, said the visibility of these female characters doesn't tell the full story.
Image: HBO/SKY ATLANTIC
"You've got this misperception that because women are very visible, their bodies are very visible, that somehow equates to a meaningful statement, which doesn't necessarily have to be the case."
Women, especially in the earlier series, "speak with their bodies", according to Dr Genz, and "the audience will not necessarily notice how little they speak."
"It's just confirming what we know in society anyway - that women's voices are underrepresented."
Game of Thrones has been criticised for the over-sexualisation of female characters and its portrayal of violence against women.
Some of show's actors have defended the show in the past, rejecting accusations of misogyny and highlighting that "the key players this season are all female".